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cloisters still retain something of the quiet and seclusion of former days. The grey walls are discoloured by damps, and crumbling with age; a coat of hoary moss has gathered over the inscriptions of the mural monuments, and obscured the death's heads, and other funereal emblems. The sharp touches of the chisel are gone from the rich tracery of the arches; the roses wich adorned the key-stones have lost their leafy beauty; everything bears marks of the gradual dilapidations of time, which 10 yet has something touching and pleasing in its very

decay.

The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal ray into the square 11 of the cloisters; beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in the centre, and lighting up an angle of the vaulted passage with a kind of dusty splendour. From between the arcades 12, the eye glanced up to a bit of blue sky or a passing cloud; and beheld the sun-gilt pinnacles of the abbey towering into the azure heaven.

As I paced the cloisters, sometimes contemplating this mingled picture of glory and decay, and sometimes endeavouring to decipher the inscriptions on the tombstones, which formed the pavement beneath my feet, my eye was attracted to three figures, rudely carved in relief, but nearly worn away by the footsteps of many generations. They were the effigies of three of the early abbots; the epitaphs were entirely effaced; the names alone remained, having no doubt been renewed in later times. (Vitalis. Abbas. 1082, and Gislebertus Crispinus. Abbas. 1114, and Laurentius. Abbas. 1176.) I remained some little while musing over these casual relics of antiquity, thus left like wrecks upon the distant shore of time, telling no tale but that such beings had been and had perished; teaching no moral but the futility of that pride which hopes still to exact homage in its ashes, and to live in an inscription. A little longer, and even these faint records will be obliterated, and the monument will cease

7) coat Decke.

8) funereal emblems = Sinnbilder des Grabes.

9) touch stroke of a pencil or pen Strich, Linie; feature, lineament Zug; hier vom Meissel etwa: die scharfen Umrisse.

10) which auf den ganzen vorhergehenden Satz zu beziehen.

11) square Viereck, Geviert, fr. équerre, ital. squadra zu lat. ex u. quadrare, quadratus, quatuor; dann der (viereckige) Platz, hier etwa der Hof.

12) from between the arcades dtsch. mit anderer Anschauung: zwischen den Bogengängen hindurch.

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to be a memorial 18. Whilst I was yet looking down upon these grave-stones, I was roused by the sound of the abbey clock, reverberating from buttress to buttress, and echoing among the cloisters. It is almost startling to hear this warning of departed time sounding among the tombs, and telling the lapse of the hour, which, like a billow, has rolled us onward towards the grave. I pursued my walk to an arched door opening to the interior of the abbey. On entering here, the magnitude of the building breaks fully upon the mind 11, contrasted with the vaults of the cloisters. The eye gazes with wonder at clustered columns 15 of gigantic dimensions, with arches springing from them to such an amazing height; and man 16 wandering about their bases, shrunk into insignificance in comparison with his own handiwork. The spaciousness and gloom of this vast edifice produce a profound and mysterious awe. We step cautiously and softly about, as if fearful of disturbing the hallowed silence of the tomb; while every foot-fall whispers along the walls, and chatters among the sepulchres, making us more sensible of the quiet we have interrupted.

It seems as if the awful nature of the place presses down upon the soul, and hushes the beholder into noiseless reverence. We feel that we are surrounded by the congregated bones of the great men of past times, who have filled history with their deeds, and the earth with their renown.

And yet it always provokes a smile at the vanity of human ambition, to see how they are crowded together and justled in the dust; what parsimony is observed in doling out 17 a scanty nook, a gloomy corner, a little portion of earth, to those, whom, when alive, kingdoms could not satisfy; and how many shapes, and forms, and artifices, are devised to catch the casual notice of the passenger, and save from forgetfulness, for a few short years, a name which once aspired to occupy ages of the world's thought and admiration 18.

13) memòrial = Erinnerungszeichen.

14) the magnitude of the building breaks fully upon the mind dtsch. etwa die Grösse des Gebäudes drängt sich dem Gemüth in ihrem vollen Umfange auf.

15) clustered columns

Säulenbündel.

16) man ist abhängig von The eye gazes at.

17) to dole (Scheideform von to deal theilen) out austheilen, vertheilen, zutheilen.,,It has now always the subaudition of a scanty portion, as,,to dole" is to deal scantily and reluctantly forth".

18) to occupy ages of the world's thought and admiration. Dem Geiste der deutschen Sprache gemässer macht man den Inhalt der Zeit

I passed some time in Poet's Corner, which occupies an end of one of the transepts or cross aisles 19 of the abbey. The monuments are generally simple; for the lives of literary men afford no striking themes for the sculptor. Shakspeare and Addison have statues erected to their memories; but the greater part have busts, medallions, and sometimes mere inscriptions. Notwithstanding the simplicity of these memorials, I have always observed that the visitors to the abbey remain longest about them. A kinder and fonder feeling takes place of 20 that cold curiosity or vague admiration with which they gaze on the splendid monuments of the great and the heroic. They linger about these as about the tombs of friends and companions; for indeed there is something of companionship between the author and the reader. Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure: but the intercourse between the author and his fellowmen is ever new, active, and immediate. He has lived for them more than for himself; he has sacrificed surrounding enjoyments and shut himself up from the delights of social life, that he might the more intimately commune with distant minds and distant ages. Well may the world cherish his renown; for it has been purchased, not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure. Well may posterity be grateful to his memory; for he has left it 21 an inheritance, not of empty names and sounding actions, but whole treasures of wisdom, bright gems of thought, and golden veins of language.

From Poet's Corner I continued my stroll towards that part of the abbey which contains the sepulchres of the kings. I wandered among what once were chapels 22, but which are now occupied by the tombs and monuments of the great. At every turn I met with some illustrious name; or the cognisance 23 of

alter zum Object der Beschäftigung: die Gedanken und die Bewunderung der ganzen Welt auf Jahrhunderte (eigentl. Zeitalter) zu beschäftigen, zu fesseln.

19) Transept (v. lat. trans u. saepire) in der Baukunst jeder Querbau, z. B. das Kreuzschiff der meisten grossen mittelalterlichen Kirchen, wodurch die Längen ausdehnung des Gebäudes unterbrochen und Querflügel gebildet werden.

20) to take place of someth. = an die Stelle einer Sache treten. 21) it to posterity.

22) among what once were chapels wörtlich: unter dem umher, was einst Kapellen waren; deutsch etwa: in den Räumen umher, die einst Kapellen waren.

23) cógnisance (gewöhnl. cónnisance gesprochen v. altfr. cognizance,

some powerful house renowned in history. As the eye darts into these dusky chambers of death, it catches glimpses of quaint effigies; some kneeling in niches 24, as if in devotion; others stretched upon the tombs, with hands piously pressed together 25; warriors in armour, as if reposing after battle; prelates with crosiers and mitres; and nobles in robes and coronets,

lying as it were in state 26. In glancing over this scene, so strangely populous, yet where every form is so still and silent, it seems almost as if we were treading a mansion of that fabled city, where every being had been suddenly transmuted into stone.

27

I paused to contemplate a tomb on which lay the effigy of a knight in complete armour. A large buckler was on one arm; the hands were pressed together in supplication upon the breast; the face was almost covered by the morion; the legs were crossed, in token of the warrior's having been engaged in the holy war 2 It was the tomb of a crusader 28; of one of those military enthusiasts who so strangely mingled religion and romance, and whose exploits form the connecting link between fact and fiction 29; between the history and the fairy tale. There is something extremely picturesque in the tombs of these adventurers, decorated as they are with rude armorial bearings and Gothic sculpture. They comport with the antiquated chapels in which they are generally found; and in considering them, the imagination is apt to kindle with the legendary associations, the romantic fictions, the chivalrous pomp and pageantry, which

neufr. connaissance v. mittellat. cognoscentia) = Erkenntniss, Kenntniss, im gerichtl. Sinne Geständniss; sodann das, woran man Jem. erkennt, Abzeichen, vergl. Webster = a badge worn by a retainer (Dienstmann, Mann im Sinne des mittelalterl. Ritterwesens) or dependent, to índicate the person or party to which he belonged.

24) niche Mauervertiefung, mit franz. Aussprache, v. franz. niche, das ursprünglich eine muschelartige Vertiefung bedeutet und mit dem ital. nicchio Muschel znrückgeführt wird auf lat. mytilus, mitulus Miesmuschel.

25) pressed together

=

gefaltet.

26) crosier Bischofsstab scheint auf ein altfr. croisier von crois, croix (zu lat. crux Kreuz) zu weisen; mitre Bischofsmütze aus d. lat. gr. mitra, uízoa Kopfbinde; robe Staatsgewand; lying as it were (= as if it were gleichsam) in state als ob sie auf dem Paradebett lägen.

27) zum Zeichen, dass der Krieger an dem heiligen Kriege (den Kreuzzügen) theilgenommen hatte.

28) crusader Kreuzfahrer mit scharf. s.

29) fact and fiction Wahrheit und Dichtung. Irving, The Sketch Book.

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poetry has spread over the wars for the sepulchre of Christ. They are the relics of times utterly gone by; of beings passed from recollection; of customs and manners with which ours have no affinity. They are like objects from some strange and distant land, of which we have no certain knowledge, and about which all our conceptions are vague and visionary. There is something extremely solemn and awful in those effigies on Gothic tombs, extended as if in the sleep of death, or in the supplication of the dying hour. They have an effect infinitely more impressive on my feelings than the fanciful attitudes, the overwrought conceits 3o, and allegorical groups, which abound on modern monuments. I have been struck, also, with the superiority of many of the old sepulchral inscriptions. There was a noble way, in former times, of saying things simply, and yet saying them proudly; and I do not know an epitaph that breathes a loftier consciousness of family worth and honourable lineage, than one which affirms, of a noble house, that,,all the brothers were brave, and all the sisters virtuous.“

In the opposite transept to Poet's Corner stands a monument which is among the most renowned achievements of modern art; but which to me appears horrible rather than sublime. It is the tomb of Mrs. Nightingale, by Roubillac 31. The bottom of the monument is represented as throwing open its marble doors, and a sheeted skeleton is starting forth. The shroud is falling from his fleshless frame as he launches his dart at his victim. She is sinking into her affrighted husband's arms, who strives, with vain and frantic effort, to avert the blow. The whole is executed with terrible truth and spirit 32; we almost fancy we hear the gibbering 33 yell of triumph, bursting from the distended jaws of the spectre. But why

30)_overwrought (= laboured too much) conceits = gesuchte, gezierte Gedanken, Einfälle.

31) In der Capelle des H. Johannes des Evangelisten, des H. Andreas und des H. Michael (früher drei getrennte Capellen, jetzt zu einer vereinigt), vergl. Bädekers London:,,J. Gascoigne Nightingale († 1752) und seine Gemahlin, Gruppe von Roubiliac. Der Tod dringt mit seinem Stachel auf die Sterbende ein, während ihr Gatte den Angriff desselben von ihr abzuwehren sucht. Sie starb 1734, 27 Jahre alt.“ 32) spirit

Lebendigkeit.

33) to gibber (mit hart. g) unverständlich sprechen = to speak rapidly and inartículately, zu gab Mund, Geschwätz ans dem Scandinav. Uebrigens ist der Einfluss der Lautnachahmung nicht abzuweisen. Das Wort ist veraltet; es kommt bei Shakspere einmal vor, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1. gibbering unarticuliert.